[zoomablemind]

> And promo is often based on leadership of projects. And how do you become the leader of projects? You write compelling documents.

This sounds somewhat idealized. As much as writing well is an asset, the understanding and ability to navigate office politics is what increases one's chances at career advancement. In the simplest form, just doing what the boss wants/expects one to do, not doing the unwanted things. No matter big or small company, a lot of subtle things that are said and done matter more, than the ways things are put in writing.

[novok]

What do you think navigating office politics is? A lot of it is communication, and a lot of that communication is written down, especially in the remote work world we are going to. :)

Also how do you become the well paid boss that tells people what to do? You get promoted. You often have to communicate to your subordinates on what to do through writing and so on. Otherwise your known as a bad boss and the best might not want to work with you.

[zoomablemind]

> You often have to communicate to your subordinates on what to do through writing and so on.

There're many different ways how the communications end up being. Some ways/bosses are better at writing, others are not as much. If anything to notice is that some well-writing bosses scale down to very short one-paragraph emails, almost slack-style. Even more, these already short messages may have typos (how?? the spell check is ftee!!). Well, that's the busy-boss style, as writing long replies or bothering with minor corrections just takes the time away from the tons of emails in the queue.

Which brings this to the next point, that, perhaps, a _comprehension_ skill is of equal importance for success in any kind of team. And that goes beyond what's written.

Some people/bosses won't read long texts, others want details, yet others want structure; many prefer visual depictions (hello, white board), some would rather write the whole thing in their own words.

As it's said - write for your audience. I'd add, that one needs to communicate to the audience's comprehension level, and you'd stand a better chance to be understood.

[BeetleB]

> What do you think navigating office politics is? A lot of it is communication, and a lot of that communication is written down, especially in the remote work world we are going to. :)

I think you and GP have quite different understandings of office politics. I know the GP's perspective: Most office politics is done over coffee/lunch. Then the followup is "Can you present your stuff in our next meeting?" And if not that, then "Do you have a PPT with your proposal?"

People in my company like looking at PPTs. Reading a few pages? Not as much. Just today a senior exec sent out a 4 page whitepaper on the key initiative our department is working on. I probably should do a survey in a week's time to see how many people bothered to read it.

And once again, I think your perspective is biased a bit towards certain SW companies. Most engineering companies don't have remote work (although there's talk in my company to continue allowing it once COVID blows over). It's a well known tech company, but definitely a very traditional one.

> Also how do you become the well paid boss that tells people what to do? You get promoted.

As I pointed out earlier, most companies don't require a formal writeup for promotion beyond the annual review. When I got my last promotion, my manager told me "Both I and my manager are quite familiar with your work, so this paper you're writing is merely to fulfill an HR requirement, and I'm here only to make sure you don't claim something you didn't do," We don't "apply" for promotion. It is granted based on the manager/committee's opinion on how well you're doing. I didn't know I was getting one till it was granted.

Oh, and those annual writeups are a thing of the past. So now your bonus/promotion is entirely based on your manager's opinion. People did protest this change, but I actually welcomed it - I knew the act of writing things up in the past was viewed by most teams as a mere formality, so why waste time on it?

Our company has lots of mentors who do 1:1 or group presentations on career growth. What I write here is reflective of what they say. Not once did they advocate "writing well". Networking, getting to know your manager's needs (or his/her manager's needs), etc are the usual ways to do well. And presenting in front of audiences (for networking, not for promoting your idea - that is secondary).

> You often have to communicate to your subordinates on what to do through writing and so on. Otherwise your known as a bad boss and the best might not want to work with you.

There are plenty of bad bosses in my company. And that's where office politics come into play - "good" engineers in our culture are those who navigate around such bosses via politics (and don't spend time complaining). "Bad" engineers complain or leave.

(I don't agree with the sentiment, but that is the perspective here).

Probably a lot of this has to do with the fact that we have very few competitors. For most of the "best" engineers, going to a competitor is a step down. And from what I've heard from those who left, the culture isn't any better there.

Based on the responses to my initial comment, I'll concede that not every company is like mine - and that's refreshing. It is also clear that my company is not by any means an outlier.

[ThrowawayR2]

Nope, he's talking about actual tech companies. Competition is fierce there and "just doing what the boss wants/expects one to do" is the bare minimum or even underperforming. Being able to articulate your ideas and persuade others that your're right and follow your lead is crucial to rising through the ranks.